Delhi man found dead in UP

Bijnor, Dec 28 Shahbaz Jhojha, a resident of Kalyanpuri in New Delhi, was found dead in a hotel room in Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor district.

His throat was slit and a part of his hand was chopped off. Broken bottles of liquor were also recovered from the room on Monday.

Police arrested Shakeel Lambu, one of Shahbaz's aides, later in the day and booked him under murder charges. He has been remanded to judicial custody.

According to the police, the two were involved with a gang that made 'fake' visas by luring people with jobs abroad.

The two charged as much as Rs 2.5 lakhs promising quality jobs abroad but would either take all the money themselves and flee, make travelling visas instead of work ones, or provide low-paying jobs such as cattle grazing or working as a janitor.

The police said that the accused confessed to killing Shahbaz, 47, with a pair of scissors because he used to take the majority of the profit from the trade.

Cops have recovered the pair of scissors from the accused who belongs to Bijnor.

Bijnor Superintendent of Police (SP) Dharamveer Singh, said: "Shahbaz is from Bijnor but he had settled down in Delhi some years ago. He had his network in Bijnor as well. The accused Shakeel, his associate, is a criminal. A case was earlier registered against him at the Nehru Nagar police station of Dehradun under sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471, and 120b of IPC. He was declared a fugitive."

The accused told the police that Shahbaz would often "act like his boss" and that he was forced to extort money from those wanting to go abroad for jobs.

Shakeel added that he met Shahbaz in Delhi and brought him to Bijnor in a hired car on December 25 on the pretext of giving him money.

Later, he said he took Shahbaz to a hotel, where they stayed along with their car driver.

The driver stayed in a separate room while the duo was in another. Both Shakeel and Shahbaz had wine, after which Shahbaz fell unconscious from excessive drinking.

"Shakeel attacked him with a pair of scissors. He slit his throat and chopped off some portion of his hand. Shahbaz died of excess bleeding. Shakeel fled the spot, locking the body inside the room. The incident came to the fore when the room remained shut throughout Sunday morning. The staff broke the door open on Monday," said the SP.